Six-year-old Sayaka finds one day, when she runs around the playground one day, a girl with twin braids seated quietly at the swings. With the lack of a playmate since her siblings are now older, the child approaches the girl on the swing.

“What’s your name?” Sayaka asks.

“Mirukii,” the girl says, “My name is Miyuki but people call me Mirukii.”

“I’m Sayaka, and I’m turning six this year!” she grins.

Miyuki gasps. “Me too!”

Miyuki gets off the swing, and they realise that they stood around the same height. 

“Oh, my older siblings have been saying that I’m short,” she laments with a pout on her lips. “By the way, what is your blood type?”

“B!” Miyuki enthusiastically answers.

“I’m a B too!” Sayaka’s mouth is agape in disbelief. “Let’s be friends!”

The girls start to play together, and every day, they return to the playground for each other’s company.

Years pass. Sayaka and Miyuki attend school together, and they grow to become inseparable friends who are there for each other at all times. They grow up to be very different girls, with Miyuki being a lot more outgoing and girly, while Sayaka turns into a diligent student with a genuine heart. They come to realise that their differences complement each other despite arguments at times and both are extremely grateful for each other. 

Time flies; they find themselves as high school students, with Sayaka becoming student council president. While Miyuki begins feeling lonely as their time together decrease, Sayaka tries her best to be with her whenever she can. As Sayaka’s guilt grows, she realises the emptiness she feels without Miyuki too. One day, as she walks silently beside Miyuki while the two are on their way home, the beating of her heart tells her that she might be in love with Miyuki. 

However foreign the feeling, Sayaka accepts it after time, despite it occasionally getting out of hand. As much as it embarrasses her, she finds the want to hug Miyuki and hold her hand every time she sees her but does not. 

Come the last year of high school, Sayaka gets a scholarship to a university in Tokyo. Both girls are saddened that they might be separated. Sayaka, fearing their separation, finds herself repeatedly in tears on their graduation day as they say their goodbyes to the school. However, Miyuki remains cheerful throughout the day, which confuses Sayaka.

“Let’s meet at the playground tomorrow, I have something to tell you,” Miyuki says before they leave. On the way home, Sayaka finds her vision clouded by her tears, but before she reaches, she hears a loud clap—

Sayaka’s eyes are wide open, as the sunlight pours in through the windows, yet it remains cold in the winter morning. Confused, she seats herself up, and realises that she was in a dream.

“Mirukii?” she scratches her head as she furrows her eyebrows. It takes time for her to process the events of the dream, but when it registers in her mind, she feels a pain in her chest and she knows she wants to meet Miyuki. 

Sayaka brings her hands to her face, and only realises that she is crying when her hands turn wet from her tears. She sobs with her face buried in her palms, resentful that it was just a dream. She wishes it was reality. It shocks her to realise, but she wishes that somehow, the Sayaka and the Miyuki who could be friends, who could be comfortable with their differences, who could fall in love were real.

She thinks again about her dream, replaying its ending in her head. It hits her then, that the playground they met in her dream as children, is the playground along the way from the train station to her home, where she used to play at as a child.

No way, Sayaka tells herself when a thought occurs in her, no way she’d be there. Yet, Sayaka decides to try. She pulls away the sheets and hurriedly washes up, before dashing out of the house to the playground.

Sayaka arrives at the playground to see it empty. She seats herself on a swing, picturing six-year-old Miyuki with twin braids sitting on the other. Sayaka lets sentimentality from both the nostalgia of her childhood and the story in her dream wash her through. She hears the sound of birds in the trees, the distant sound of cars, as she kicks the ground gently and swings on the swing.

Without anything to tell the time, Sayaka realises she does not know how long she has been there. Am I really waiting for her? Sayaka narrows her eyes. It was just a dream, she thinks to herself, somewhat exasperated.

However, Sayaka doesn’t leave. Something in her tells her to continue waiting. With a sigh, she stands up from the swings and seats herself at a bench. 

It is only an hour later that she hears some footsteps amidst the tranquillity. Sayaka gasps and brings her head up, only to see a group of three children arriving at the playground for their playtime. 

What was I expecting, really? Sayaka sighs and puts her head down again. She closes her eyes, as the sorrow overcomes her. Just then, she hears heavy, running footsteps that gradually seem louder and nearer. 

“Sayaka chan!” she hears a panting voice that makes her heart squeeze calling for her name, when the footsteps halt. 

Mirukii, she takes in a deep breath. Immediately she stands up from the bench and turns to the source of the voice. It’s really her, she thinks as her eyelids batter and tears begin welling up in her eyes again. 

“Mirukii!” she screams, and runs towards the direction of the voice. 

“Mirukii,” she says again when she stops and looks intently at the face before her. Without hesitation, Sayaka plunges forward and wraps her arms tightly around Miyuki, who catches her and reciprocates the hug. Resting her head on Miyuki’s shoulder, she cries her heart out. Something tells her then, that this is where she wants to be for the rest of her life, that this is where she belongs. With Miyuki, in Miyuki’s arms. 

Sayaka can feel Miyuki sniffling, and guesses that the girl is crying as well. Her assumption is confirmed when she sees her cheeks stained with streaks of tears.

“But… why? How?” Sayaka asks when they pull apart, remaining in her puzzlement. It was just a dream, wasn’t it? 

Miyuki shakes her head and appears to be equally confused. “I don’t know. I just had this wild dream last night, that…” Miyuki struggles to say, embarrassed.

“That we met as kids at this playground and grew up together to become best of friends,” Sayaka completes the sentence for her, her eyes wide in astonishment.

“Yes, yes!” Miyuki’s jaw drops. “And it was graduation day. And I told you to meet at this playground the next day, for you were sad about going away to Tokyo and I wanted to tell you I was going with you,” Miyuki continues to tell the story.

“What?” It isn’t the ending Sayaka knows. “But…” 

“Apparently, you received a scholarship to study at an esteemed university in Tokyo. You felt so far, so out of reach, especially after your year as student council president when we could not spend as much time together. I worked so hard, to take the entrance exam to the same university just so I could be with you. And I succeeded. I was going to tell you that when we were to meet here, the day after graduating,” Miyuki explains, yet the story sounds equally foreign to herself. 

“I…” Sayaka shakes her head, dumbfounded in incredulity. “And how did you know to come here?”

“I just wanted to try. It took me a while but I soon realised where this place was, because I’ve been over at your place a few times and each time we came by train and I remember seeing this playground along the way from the station. I didn’t think it would really…” Miyuki does not finish her sentence, as her tears find their way down her cheeks to the corners of her lips.

Sakaya cups Miyuki’s face in her hands and wipes the tears away, while choking on her own sobs. The gesture warms Miyuki’s heart, despite inducing a chuckle in her. Miyuki smiles and places her hands on Sayaka’s face too, which causes Sayaka to tear up even more.

“Thank you for coming,” Sayaka says. For coming here today, and for coming into my life, reality or not. Sayaka remembers the feeling in her dream, when she was in love with Miyuki. She finds the same warm fuzziness in her chest, and believes that it is love she feels for Miyuki now.

“Sayaka chan, I know it was just a dream, but—” Miyuki pauses and her eyes dart as she searches for words, “it made me happy, really. It made me feel so sad and remorseful that in reality, we fought against each other, we competed, felt distaste for each other at times— I wish it weren’t like that. That you could just be you, Sayaka chan, and me just me, and we could be friends, we could be so close—”

“And love each other,” Sayaka cuts in. There is both disbelief and refreshment from hearing her words, but the clarity and firmness of the words affirm her belief.

“We could,” Sayaka says, “we’ve graduated anyway. You can just be you, and I am just me, Yamamoto Sayaka, the Sayaka chan who loves you,” she earnestly says.

Miyuki remains motionless before her. “Sayaka chan…” her voice drops to a whisper.

Sayaka takes a deep breath. “I do love, you, Mirukii.”

Miyuki frowns. “Do you?” Her question is timid. 

The doubt takes Sayaka aback. “Yes. 好きだ。(Suki da.)”

Miyuki’s lips slowly curve into a smile. “Me too. I want to be with you all the time. When you’re not around, I miss you. I want to see you, hear from you. I love you, Sayaka chan, even if last night was just a dream, you’re still the Sayaka chan I love.”

Sayaka breaks into a smile. She takes a step back. “Well, then from now on, よろしくお願いします。(Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.)” She gives Miyuki a small bow as she says.

The gesture tickles Miyuki, who giggles as she reciprocates it, “よろしくお願いします。(Yoroshiku onegaishimasu.)”

Sayaka reaches for Miyuki’s hands and holds them in hers. They’ve definitely held hands before, over thousands of times maybe, but this time, when their fingers intertwine, as if locking perfectly, they feel a refreshing warmth that ignites in them excitement for a future together.

a/n: ending still feels weird to me //-//